Eurovision Song Contest 2014

Eurovision Song Contest 2014 : Copenhagen

Another Eurovision submission season has begun while here at Plutonic Productions, we are busy as ever….putting the final touches and mastering several new tracks for artist participating in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 : Copenhagen!

The Eurovision Song Contest is one of those television spectaculars that you either love, or hate. And even if the importance of the song has been downplayed in the last thirty years in favour of the performance, the local heats (and indeed occasionally even the final itself), can still offer the unknown songwriter a taste of international success.

In September, at the beginning of the submission season, Rudden and The Larks decided to throw their collaborative work, ‘Summer Loving’ into the Swiss Eurovision National Selection ring. Around the same time, Rudden+Bridge penned a track for Daniel Testa [Malta] which we hope will become the Maltese entry to this year’s international song contest.

We’ve been lucky to have submitted a small selection of our original songs for the Eurosong competition in other countries over the past few years and have found that there are many opportunities to get involved with Eurovision internationally as more countries launch competitions to select their national entry.

It’s a wonderfully unique contest ~ a celebration of music + song…bringing people from around the world, together!

Here’s an update of what we’ve done so far…stay tuned, there’s more to come! See you in Denmark ♬

Most of the rest of the performers put on what could easily be called an unintentionally comedic show, with poor performances, miserable expressions and unfortunate wardrobe choices. Too bad none of them made it to the semi-finals, because now we’re left wondering who will bring the crazy on behalf of Moldova this time around…

Did you watch the live auditions? What did you think of the jury’s choices?

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A list of 40 songs has been released by Moldovan broadcaster, TRM, which will be shortened to just 24 after a round of live auditions planned for February 1st. The lucky 24 songs will then compete in the two semi-finals on March 11th & 13th. The national final will be broadcast on March 15th.

Andreas Anastasiou and Beanz Rudden met via Twitter when their songs, were both up for contention during the 2013 Belgian Eurovision song selection. Andreas already has some experience in Eurovision, he co-wrote last years Belgian entry, “Love Kills” (performed by Roberto Bellarosa) and Cypriot entry from 2011, “San Aggelos S’agapisa” (performed by Christos Mylordos).

This year, Anastasiou gathered the small international group of lyricist and songwriters from Sweden [Mathias Kallenberger, Andreas Berlin] the UK [Beanz Rudden, Laurence Bridge] and Cyprus [Anastasiou] to pen the composition, ‘Turn The Tide’ sung by the Moldovan songstress, Carolina Gorun.

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Malta:

MESC’14: FIRELIGHT WINS IN MALTA!

Malta Eurovision Song Contest final took place on Saturday night. 14 acts had qualified for the show from Friday’s semi-final. After the audience votes and jury votes were announced, it was clear that the band Firelight had won the contest with their song ‘Coming Home’…

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Though a little disappointed ‘One Last Ride’ didn’t make it through to the Eurovision final – I am very proud of Daniel Testa and his stellar performance!!!

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MESC ’14: Early Two Horse Race in Public Poll

The escflashmalta.com awards, presented by ONE Radio 92.7, are already in full swing with the media, critics and public casting their votes to select their most favourite entry. Everyone is given the choice to select only one (1) of the twenty (20) competing entries in next years’ edition of the Malta Eurovision Song Contest. The current standings are intriguing, especially because the outcomes are proving to be varied.

The Public Award, as decided by each of the voters who are visiting escflashmalta.com on a daily basis, is turning out to be a heated affair between two entries; Because I Have You, written by Paul Giordimaina and Fleur Balzan with vocals by Amber and One Last Ride written by Stephen ‘Beanz’ Rudden and Lawrence Peter Bridge. The first is of course a former runner-up of the Malta Eurovision Song Contest and the second, Daniel Testa, having represented Malta at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, achieving the second best result, back in 2008. Cementing herself in a top three position is none other than fan favourite, Jessika whose entry, Hypnotica, has certainly been the talk of the town across the message boards.

At this point in time, we have received more than 1200 individual votes, and that is an amazing figure after just four days. We urge you to vote for your favourite entry out of the batch, for the upcoming edition of the Eurovision Song Contest through this link.

VOTE NOW!

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MESC ’14: Official Preview Videos Published

All of the entries competing in next years’ edition of the Malta Eurovision Song Contest officially have preview videos, start viewing and sharing amongst your friends!

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MESC ’14: Daniel Testa Works with Stephen Rudden

Mike Spiteri, representative of Malta at the 1995 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was joined at the international event by the British band, Love City Groove who performed a song also bearing their name – which proved to be the beginning of a new era for the country, one which saw them being immensely innovative. Stephen ‘Beanz’ Rudden, a songwriter/producer who had been a part of the group and had initially put the name of the band forward for an audition, is amongst the songwriters hoping to get through to the Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2014.

His entry, One Last Ride is penned by Lawrence Peter Bridge with vocals provided by Daniel Testa, the young vocalist who represented Malta at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, achieving a fourth place result in Limassol, following an astonishing performance of the track Junior Swing. Since then, Daniel has gone onto release some more singles, prior to taking up acting on the hit television series, D.R.E.A.M.S which aired on Television Malta and as a Disc Jockey on leading radio station, 89.7 Bay.

Love City Groove was a massive success in the British Charts, having managed to climb up to number #7 with around 200,000 units of sale. Will such success move forward almost ten years, as Daniel hopes to debut in next years’ Malta Eurovision Song Contest. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for all of the latest news. Here’s a snippet of Daniel performance of ‘One Last Ride‘ at the Semi-Finals held in Malta on November 29th ~

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Switzerland:

North East songwriting pair ‘The Larks’ plan to represent Switzerland in Eurovision 2014

From playing in their bedrooms to singing in front of millions worldwide, this duo aren’t larking about when it comes to Eurovision.

North East songwriting pair ‘The Larks’ are set to make their early European debut with their song ‘Summer Loving’ as candidates to represent Switzerland at Eurovision 2014.

And they hope to get the recognition of winners Abba or Bucks Fizz to catapult their music career.

Interior designer Hayley Rodgers, 40, of High Spen, Gateshead, and Podiatrist Dan Noble, 34, of Medomsley, County Durham, met following a reunion between former school friends, Dan’s wife Janette and Hayley. It was then that Hayley played a recording of her singing and impressed Dan suggested they form a band.

Hayley, unable to read music, and Dan, being out of practice on the guitar, were both secret songwriters at home but were set on recording and performing covers as a trio with Dan’s talented childhood friend, bass player and violinist, David Fox.

A chance connection on twitter with the London-based producer Stephen ‘Beanz’ Rudden of Plutonic Group, himself a Eurovision veteran having been the mastermind behind the UK 1995 entry by Love City Groove, spurned a number of collaborations between the trio before the decision was made to enter their song ‘Summer Loving’ co-written and produced by Beanz.

Hayley and Dan now work in collaboration with Beanz under his label Plutonic Group, writing music for use in television, film, advertising and in other media channels.

Hayley said: “Who knows where this could take us.

“It was Beanz’s idea. He has experience in these things and it was an opportunity we didn’t want to miss.”

Voting begins on November 4th when nine of the songs entered will be chosen by voters for the final show, airing on national TV in February. For the ‘Summer Loving’ video…

Eurovision Update: November 22nd

Well, after a good few weeks of hard pressed voting and loads of support and love from friends and fans, alas – The Larks weren’t selected for the live auditions this time.

“Massive thanks to you all, especially those who navigated the complications of online voting!” said Dan and Hayley. “We have had loads of fun along the way! Watch out for our next adventures… life is never dull for The Larks!”

For some time now, The Eurovision Song Contest has been celebrated more for its kitsch than the quality of the songs themselves, with the winning ‘best song in Europe’ usually falling short to make much of a headway on the mainstream charts. But a change is in the air. Recent winners have enjoyed huge tour and chart successes across Europe and beyond, and the success has heightened the competitiveness, seeing nations entrants ever more determined to find a that ‘perfect’ song to represent them. As such Eurovision is becoming a contest for what it was meant to be, a contest of song and the songwriters.

So now in 2012, you will find Plutonic Productions and its team of international collaborators, feverishly penning lyrics and melodies for Eurovision Song Contest 2013!

No stranger to this festival of song ~ Beanz Rudden, might best be known as the man behind the revolutionary UK Top 5 chart hit “Love City Groove” – the first rap song in the history of the highly influential song contest to be chosen to represent the U.K. With this and the 1998 ‘Song 4 Europe’ entry of the ‘When We’re Alone (We Dream)‘ by The Collective, Rudden and Eurovision continue to cross paths in the songwriting world!

Rudden+Bridge have written, produced, mastered and submitted tracks to Norway, Denmark with more on the soundboard to send as more countries announce the opening of their national selections. An awe-inspiring ballad , ‘I Know‘, written by Rudden was presented to J. Miles, an up and coming singer from Essex whose version (with background vocals by LCG band mate, Paul Hardy and Maltese singer, Malcolm Pisani) has been submitted to Switzerland.

As more countries open their musical doors to foreign composer/songwriters – it’s opened up to more varied types of songs…now, which will include tracks from Plutonic Productions! Keep your ears tuned here for more updates and information on our progress over the coming months!